Cocoa Brown boss Marissa Carter says she feels like Britney Spears as she claims she has been ‘bullied’ and pushed out of her business.
In an emotional statement, the multi-award winning tan and beauty boss broke down in tears as she told her followers ‘I can’t take it anymore’ and announced that she is taking legal action against those involved.
Marissa, who is the founder and CEO of Cocoa Brown Tan said: “For the last couple of years I have been bullied really badly by business partners and it has been the worst experience of my life.
“And I said nothing because I was embarrassed and ashamed, I was so ashamed that I could let that happen to me.
“And I felt like I was letting all the little girls that might look at my business and think ‘ I want that, I want that success’ and I just haven’t known, or wanted to fight them, to fight them legally, tooth and nail, and I've just let it happen.
“And I’m sick of it, I can’t take it anymore,” she said.
The mother-of-two, who also owns Carter Beauty, a makeup brand, said she had been hiding the issues in the past because she felt ‘ashamed’.
Relating her situation to Britney Spears’ battle for independence against her conservatorship, Marissa said she is ready and willing to ‘fight’ for her business.
“I’m sharing this because I don’t want to be ashamed anymore and I want to fight them. And I'm gonna.”
“I know that for legal reasons I won’t be able to say much.
“I feel a bit like Britney Spears, but I want you guys to know that I have really loved every minute of creating beauty products.
“I know what they will want is for it all to get too much for me and for me to just disappear, disappear off social media, disappear off the face of the earth but I’m not going to.”
“But I’m not going to, because I have poured my heart and soul and sacrificed so much to make Cocoa Brown what it is today. And I'm not going to let them take that away from me.
Within a year of launching in 2012, Cocoa Brown was the best selling tan in Ireland, and products are now sold in almost 15,000 stores around the world, from the UK to Scandinavia, North America, Russia, Australia and Europe.
Yet despite winning multiple awards, and being listed on WXN’s Top 25 Most Powerful Women, the businesswoman said she felt ‘like an imposter’ as she was secretly dealing with issues behind the scenes.
“I don’t know how many women in business, beauty industry awards I’ve won, and they all feel.. And instead I just felt heartbroken that I was letting all this stuff in the background happen to me.
“And I was just taking all manner of abuse. And I guess I felt like an imposter. Like I was not this strong, capable woman that everyone thinks I am. I am letting myself be bullied.
“I have the support of my family, and friends that are amazing and I feel ready and I’m sorry for the little emotional breakdown there, but I just needed to get all of that off my chest.
“I don’t want any little girl or any woman to feel ashamed if they are being bullied not to speak out or not to fight against it because of that shame.
Marissa said she hopes to inspire others to speak out in similar situations, saying: “I hope that they are going to see me fight this and they’ll think if she could do it, I can do it.”
“I am going to be strong and fierce.”
“I could fill a book with the sacrifices I've made for Cocoa Brown and I’m just not going to hide the truth anymore,” she added.
“Thank you to everyone who has ever messaged me because I read them all.
“Except actually if you message the Cocoa Brown page now. I don’t even have the password, they keep changing the password on me,” she claimed.
“Carter Beauty, the makeup line that I created, I didn’t take any5 investment for that and thankfully that is 100% mine.
“And I just wanted to let you guys know that and thank you so much.”
Irish Mirror has reached out to Cocoa Brown and it's distributer Sundrelle for comment.
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